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Procurement Act
Effective July 1, 2003 - Departmental Issues

Disclosure, Conflict of Interest, and Compliance with Procurement Code

Requirements

All offers, whether solicited
or unsolicited, in response to a competitive Sealed Bid, Request For
Proposal, or Request For Information, must include a disclosure of specified
financial information by the bidder, proposer, or contractor.

Offers that fail to provide the specified disclosure information cannot
be accepted and are considered as non-responsive to the competitive sealed
bid, Request for Proposal, or Request For Information.

In addition to information regarding name, ownership interest, type
of ownership, and notice of potential conflict based on beneficial relationship,
all disclosures must note any other current or pending contracts, proposals,
leases, or other ongoing procurement relationships the bidding, proposing,
or offering entity has with any other unit of State government.

In the case of a real or direct conflict of interest (Purchase from
a University officers, employee, or spouse, or minor child of an employee),
an exemption to authorize such purchase can be made with appropriate approval.

Approval is effective when it has been properly documented and includes
the name of the individual, basis for the conflict, reason for exemption,
and received the appropriate authorizing signature(s).

In the case of an identified potential conflict of interest (Purchase
from entity having beneficial relationship other than a University officer,
employee, or spouse, or minor child of an employee), the transaction will
be reviewed by the Governor, or an ethics board or commission designated
by the Governor, when it involves a competitively bid contract exceeding
$250,000 or a contract for personal services or other contract in excess
of $50,000.

If any contract is entered into or purchase or expenditure of funds
made in violation of the Procurement Code, the contract may be declared
void by the Chief Procurement Officer.

Whoever violates the Procurement Code, or rules promulgated under it,
is guilty of a Class A misdemeanor, and willful violation, directly or
by accessory, is subject to immediate dismissal.

Department Considerations

Department should be aware
that a standard disclosure form has been developed and will be incorporated
in every competitive Sealed Bid, Request For Proposal, or Request For
Information issued by the Purchasing Division.

Department should be aware that suppliers that fail to provide the required
disclosure information in response to any solicitation cannot be considered
for award. This requirement means that the department may not be able
to consider an otherwise low bidder who responds to a University solicitation.

Requests for exemption on a real or direct conflict of interest transaction
can be reviewed and handled at the campus level. Department should consider
that such requests will have to be submitted for approval to the President
of the University. Such requests for exemption for conflict of interest
purchases must include a letter from the Dean or Department Head and address
why the requested purchase is essential to University operations (in the
case of officers or employees), or beneficial to University operations
(in the case of immediate family of officers or employees), and why the
purchase can only be economically made from such source. This review process
will take additional time to complete and cannot be made on an after the
fact basis. Department may want to undertake a market evaluation to determine
if there is any alternate source of supply in lieu of a conflict of interest
supplier.

Requests for exemption on such conflict of interest transactions will
have to be submitted for external review and approval in addition to receiving
the necessary internal reviews and approvals. This external review process
will take additional time to complete and cannot be made on an after the
fact basis. Department may want to undertake a market evaluation to determine
if there is any alternate source of supply in lieu of a conflict of interest
supplier.

Department should consider that transactions submitted on an after the
fact basis may be in violation of the Procurement Code if they were not
handled in accordance with the specified method of source selection and
were not properly solicited through a public advertisement.

Department faculty and staff should be advised that violations of the
Procurement Code are subject to legal penalties, and in the case of deliberate
violations, the penalties may include dismissal.